A Call For Advice

I'm wondering if anyone would like to chime in with a little advice for me. I need to build some way to work the cattle. It seems as if there are as many ideas as there are people. I've seen some nifty designs that are way out of my league ($$$$) and I've seen some poorly conceived designs that are as awkward as they are dangerous. I currently have about 30 acres of good pasture that will be divided into approximately eight or so pastures for rotation purposes. I also have access to an additional 10-20 acres of neighbors' pastures. I would like to work the cattle in the area shown below. All that exists currently is the fencing (barbed wire) the water and electric stub, and the gates. If you click on the picture, you should be able to view a larger picture.



Parameters

I may be sharing a squeeze chute with a friend so that feature may need to be portable

I would like to be able to work the cattle with as few hands as possible

Exact positioning of the barn, etc. is flexible

Will probably never handle more than 50 head or so

Any and all advice will be appreciated - whether philosophical, technical or both.
Keith

First Time for Potatoes

We planted potatoes for the very first time this year. We had heard that it could be difficult. The soil has to be just right, and bugs are likely to eat them up before they produce. For those who did grow potatoes, the unanimous recommendation was Kennebec. Perhaps it is just common sense, but when trying something for the first time, it is usually best to not deviate too far from what your neighbors are doing successfully. Well, I am happy to report that this year's harvest was awesome. We have tried these potatoes prepared a number of ways and they seem to be a good, general-purpose potato. I have been most impressed with their flavor and firmness. Rarely do store-bought potatoes have the same hardness which, I suppose, corresponds to freshness.



Next year, we may try Yukon Gold - Mary Susan's personal favorite.

Keith

The Garden

2005 has been an outstanding year for our garden. I use the term "our" rather loosely in that the real minds and backs behind the garden have been Grammy and Granddaddy. We are blessed that they are willing accomplices in our multi-generational vision for family life. They have much wisdom to share and love to give that can be difficult to fully capture in weekly or monthly visits. Granddaddy (my father-in-law), has always been an avid and industrious gardener. I, on the other hand, usually surrender much of the garden's potential to the more diligent weeds and grass. Garden planting day, pictured below, was April 16th. This was the Saturday following April 15 - which corresponds the official last frost day for our area. Pictured are my daughters, youngest son, and Grammy and Granddaddy. You can just make out my oldest son and me in the background beginning construction of the garden shed/hen house.

May 7th and you can see things poping up. You may have also noticed the grass strips between the garden sections. That was a first for us and I'll address that in another post. You can also see the shed/hen house is nearly done.

June 21st and the garden is really at the peak of its beauty. Lettuce and broccoli are being harvested at this point, but we'll have to wait for what I consider the real payoff - tomatoes. From left to right you can see potatoes, broccoli - onions and lettuce, tomatoes, tomatoes - cucumbers and squash, early corn, butter beans, and pole beans.

August 11th and we have canned all the green beans we care to and the corn has been picked and either eaten fresh or frozen for the winter. The butter beans were replaced by okra and at the far right you can see pumpkins. Between the pole beans and the pumpkins is a row of asparagus.

Today, we only have turnip greens - which is a fine way to end a garden.
-Keith

Making Molasses

We had the opportunity to visit a neighboring community and observe the process of making molasses. These good folks still make 'em the old, and as I'm told, better way. They start by stripping the sorghum in the field. Next, they top it by removing the seed head. Finally, it is chopped and brought by wagon to the grinder which is driven by a mule as you can see in the photo below.



They have a pretty slick setup as you can see in the following picture. The sorghum juice runs out of the grinder, through a screen and into a PVC pipe that is buried underground. Site selection was carefully planned such that the grinder is higher than the shed allowing the 100 gal. tank to be gravity fed.



Below you can see the evaporator and the raw sorghum supply. The stainless evaporator pan used here is divided into 5 sections. The juice is cooked and reduced further as it progresses from one end of the evaporator to the other. The first 2-3 stages require constant stirring and skimming of the green foam that forms on the surface.



This day was a bit on the dreary side or there would have been a large crowd. It is still a significant social and community event. Later in the evening they were expecting some neighbors to bring instruments and play a little gospel and bluegrass.



You can just make out the skimming basket in this last picture. Although many folks participate in the operation, only one or two are qualified to man the evaporator and determine when the molasses are ready.



We tasted a bit of the local product and it was simply outstanding. Probably the best I've ever tried. For the record, the sorghum variety in this batch was "Honey Drip", one of the older and rarer varieties.

This year the harvest was particularly good and they will probably get about 50 gallons of molasses in this batch from approximately an acre of sorghum. That corresponds to 500 gallons of sorghum juice and 12-16 hours at the evaporator.

4-H Chickens

This year we're raising Black Sex-Link hens for eggs. The selection of Black Sex-Link was based solely on the fact that the local 4-H group is using them for the hen project. We started with 25 and are presently holding at 14. We're not terribly disappointed considering that on Day 1, my 2 year old son, as he was helping unload the new chicks from the truck, delivered a chick to the mouth of our blue heeler. Needless to say, that gift was received with great enthusiasm.

The feeder you see was inspired by Herrick Kimball's post. Although it differs significantly from the original, it has served us very well thus far. We wanted a cover to protect the feed from rain. As you can see, the top is removable for filling and cleaning.

Latest Addition to the Farm

Here's a photo of our latest calf - a bull calf. This is our second calf this year. We're starting very slowly hoping to learn as we go and grow over the course of several years. Our first calf was a heifer. She remained fairly calm for about two days. I was able to walk up to her and tag her and she didn't even make a sound. Not so with this guy. He was running like a deer and it took three of us three tries to tag him.

Eggs (finally!)

We finally got eggs yesterday--nearly four weeks later than we were supposed to! Therefore, we are not having chicken for dinner tonight.